Welcome to the Octagon

UFC 188 is finally here and with this card we see the long awaited return of the Heavyweight Champ Cain Velasquez. UFC 188 is the second time the organization is holding an event in Mexico and with that we see six fighters showcasing their skills in their hometown. In addition to the main event for the Heavyweight title we also see fights including notable fighters such as the co-main event between Gilbert Melendez and Eddie Alvarez, a middleweight brawl between Kevin Gastelum and Nate “The Great” Marquardt, a Women’s strawweight matchup between two up-and-coming fighters and the newest flyweight to lookout for, Henry Cejudo. PrelimsFrancisco Trevino vs. Johnny Case: The first fight of the night is a lightweight matchup between Francisco Trevino and Johnny Case. The first fight also has the first Mexican native of the night, Francisco Trevino who has a professional record of 12-0. Trevino has five wins by knockout and three by submission also six first round stoppages. This is Trevino’s second UFC fight and he won his first fight. Trevino is also a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. His opponent is Johnny Case who has a record of 20-4. Case has won 15 fights by knockout and three by submission. Case has 14 wins in the first round and is on a 10 fight win streak. Case has a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. This fight could go in any direction with both fighters being experienced in both striking and grappling. I believe that both fighters will come out with a fast pace. The crowd may be on the side of Trevino, but I think that Case’s experience will grant him a first round victory by knockout.Alejandro Perez vs. Patrick Williams: The next fight of the night will be a bantamweight bout between Alejandro Perez and Patrick Williams. Alejandro Perez is the second fighter native to Mexico tonight. Perez has a professional record of 16-5 with nine first round finishes. Perez also has seven wins by knockout and five by submission. Perez is the Bantamweight winner of The Ultimate Fighter Latin America and this is his first fight in the UFC since winning. The other fighter in this match is the 7-4 Patrick Williams. Williams has four wins by knockout and two wins by submission with only one of those six not being in the first round. Williams has only one other fight in the UFC and it was a loss to Chris Beal. Williams is a two-time State Champion Collegiate wrestler. I think this fight will be more focused on ground game, but Perez will try and keep it standing. After Williams remains in control for two rounds he will secure a TKO victory.Efrain Escudero vs. Drew Dober: The co-main event of tonight’s prelims is the second lightweight matchup. Efrain Escudero is the third native on tonight’s card so the crowd will be on his side. Escudero has a record of 24-9 and has won six of his last nine fights. Escudero has a blue belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and it shows with his 12 wins by submissions. He also used six different types of submissions to gain those 12 victories. In addition to those, he also gained three victories by knockout. Escudero is also the winner of season 8 of The Ultimate Fighter. Escudero’s opponent is Drew Dober who has a record of 15-6. Dober is a more balanced fighter with six wins by knockout and five wins by submission. Of those finishes, four of them were in the first round. Dober has also won six of his last nine fights, but not all of them were part of the UFC. In this fight I predict that Escudero will want to take this to the mat while Dober will want to keep this fight standing. I’m going to go with the fans in this fight and predict that Escudero will be able to take him to the mat and secure a second round submission.(#7)Henry Cejudo vs. Chico Camus: The main event for the prelims will be the first flyweight fight of the night. Henry Cejudo is back already with his last fight being in March. Cejudo is 8-0 and deserves to be ranked. Cejudo started training two years ago after a decorated amateur wrestling career and never took part in any amateur fights. Cejudo went straight to professional fights and proved he could hang with them because he hasn’t lost yet. Of Cejudo’s eight wins four of them were by knockout and all of them were in the first round. On top of that he has proved his wrestling is not to be underestimated because he hasn’t been taken down yet. His opponent is Chico Camus who is 15-5. This will be his second fight at flyweight, winning his first. Camus has five wins by knockout and two by submission with three first round finishes. Camus trains with former champion Anthony Pettis and considers himself the first challenge that has been put in front of Henry Cejudo. I disagree with that statement because I think Chris Cariaso (Cejudo’s last opponent) was a challenging fighter, Cejudo was just able to make quick work of him. Although I do believe that Camus will be more a challenge than Cariaso was. So much so that the fight may go to the second or even third round, but I still believe that Henry Cejudo will keep his record intact with another knockout victory. UFC 188 Main Card(#5)Tecia Torres vs. (#15)Angela Hall: The main card is finally here and with that we see a women’s strawweight matchup between two ranked fighters. Both of these fighters were on The Ultimate Fighter season 20. Tecia Torres has a small record of 5-0, but has proven she deserves to be near the top with wins over Felice Herrig, Rose Namajunas and Paige VanZant. Torres has won all five of her fights by decision. Torres has a black belt in Taekwondo and a blue belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. On the other side of the cage is the #15 ranked Angela Hall. Hall has a professional record of 2-0 with one of them being by knockout. Before MMA, Hall had a 14-0 record in amateur Muay Thai. These fighters were on the same team on The Ultimate Fighter so they will both be ready for their opponent. Both fighters also have an impressive amount of successful significant strikes with Torres striking 6.4 times a minute and Hall striking 7.13 times per minute. Torres has won against better competition, but Hall has shown that she has more power in her striking. I think that in order for Torres to win, she will have to neutralize Hall’s striking. I do not think it will happen quickly, but I think Torres will be able to take ground control and be able to get the win by decision.Yair Rodriguez vs. Charles Rosa: The next fight of the main card will be a featherweight matchup. Rodriguez is the featherweight winner of The Ultimate Fighter Latin America. Rodriguez is also the fourth fighter on tonight’s card that was born in Mexico. Rodriguez has a record of 4-1 and is on a three fight win streak. Rodriguez has two wins by knockout and one by submission and all three were in the first round. Rodriguez also has a black belt in Taekwondo. His opponent for tonight is Charles Rosa. Rosa has a record of 10-1 with eight wins in the first round. Rosa has won seven times via submission and three with knockouts. Rosa has a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. The crowd will be on the side of Mexican native, Yair Rodriguez, but I am in favor of Charles Rosa. Rodriguez is on a good start in his career, but I believe that Rosa’s experience will make him the victor in this fight tonight. I believe the fight will stay standing for a good bit of the first round, maybe for all of it. Then Rosa will take the fight to ground and during the second round will lock in another choke to gain the submission victory.(#10)Kevin Gastelum vs. Nate Marquardt: This next fight is between two monstrous middleweights. First I will talk about the #10 ranked Kevin Gastelum who is 11-1. Gastelum has four wins by knockout and four wins by submission. Five of those stoppages were in the first round. Gastelum also has a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Gastelum’s last fight was just barely losing to Tyron Woodley. If you don’t know, Woodley is a welterweight and Gastelum was too, but he was forced to go up a division for missing weight too many times. Now he is in a much more comfortable weight class and will most likely perform even better. His opponent is the legendary Nate Marquardt. Marquardt has a professional record of 36-14-2. Marquardt is known for being a well-balanced predator with 14 wins by submission and 11 wins by knockout. Marquardt has been professional for 17 years and do not for a second think he is slowing down. I have no idea how Marquardt is not ranked because he has won seven of his last 13 fights, finished seven of his last eight wins and five of those finishes were by knockout. I genuinely believe that both fighters will show up at their best and we will see an absolute war. I’m going to hope for best case scenario for the fans and say it will not end until the third round. I predict that even though he is capable of getting knockouts, Marquardt is going to realize that the better game plan will be to get Gastelum on the mat and neutralize his striking. Just to put it all in one sentence, I predict that Marquardt and Gastelum will stand and go to war for three rounds, then in the third Marquardt will take it to the ground and sink in a submission for the victory. Depending on their ability to take a punch we may see another fight like BJ Penn and Joe Stevenson.(#4)Gilbert Melendez vs. (#9)Eddie Alvarez: The co-main event of the night will be the third lightweight matchup between two ranked fighters. The #4 ranked Gilbert Melendez is part of the “Skrap Pack”: a training camp taught by Ceaser Gracie and has members such as the Diaz brothers and Jake Shields. Melendez has a professional record of 22-4 with 11 wins by knockout and one win by submission. Melendez is a former WEC champion and former STRIKEFORCE champion. He also coached against Anthony Pettis on The Ultimate Fighter season 20. Pettis was also his last fight which was six months ago. Melendez also has a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. His opponent is the #9 ranked Eddie Alvarez. Eddie Alvarez has a professional record of 25-4 and has won 10 of his last 12. Alvarez has 16 wins by knockout and five wins by submission and 13 of these finishes were in the first round. Of his four losses, Alvarez was able to avenge two of the fighters he lost to. This will be another fight where one fighter will want to keep the fight standing and the other will want to take it to the ground. I am going to go for the underdog in this fight and hope that Eddie Alvarez can successfully work his standing game and pull off a third round knockout or TKO victory.(C)Cain Velasquez vs. (IC)Fabricio Werdum: Welcome to the main event and the return of Cain Velasquez. On the UFC website it has Fabricio Werdum ranked as #1, but I listed IC which stands for Interim Champion. Cain’s last fight was in 2013 and has not been back since due to injury. In his absence, the UFC held a match between Fabricio Werdum and Mark Hunt for the Interim Heavyweight Title until Velasquez returned. “Why not just make the winner the actual Champion if Velasquez has been out for over a year and a half?” you may ask. Well the answer is for the same reason that some people do not consider Daniel Cormier the real Light Heavyweight Champion. Daniel Cormier has yet to beat the best in the Light Heavyweight division, Jon Jones, and he probably will not for some time. Just like Dan, Fabricio Werdum may hold the title, but even he knows he cannot call himself the real Heavyweight Champion until he takes down the monster that is Cain Velasquez. So let’s get into the stats for the fans that may not know these fighters as well as Matt and I do. I will start with the Interim Champ, Fabricio Werdum. Werdum has a professional record of 19-5-1. Werdum has fought in PRIDE and STRIKEFORCE prior to joining the UFC. During his STRIKEFORCE run he was known as part of the “Big 3” of STRIKEFORCE heavyweights, including Alistair Overeem and Fedor Emilianko. Werdum lost his first fight in the UFC to Andrei Arlovski, but turned around to win nine of his next eleven. Werdum has won a total of six fights by knockout and nine by submission, making him a balanced fighter. His opponent, Cain Velasquez, has a record of 13-1. Only two of Velasquez’s wins were not by knockout and of those 11 finishes, eight were in the first round. Cain’s only loss was to Junior Dos Santos and Cain has beaten him twice after. I almost forgot, Cain may have been born in Arizona, but he represents Mexican Pride more than probably any other fighter on this card tonight so you better believe the crowd will be on his side all the way. This fight is going to be a war with both fighters looking to knockout their opponent to solidify themselves as the Undisputed Champion. I predict that this fight will go into the second round and Cain Velasquez will pick up a knockout victory.

-Mike W.

Prelims on FX (8PM ET):Francisco Trevino (12-0) vs. Johnny Case (20-4): We will be kicking off the televised prelims with a brawl in the lightweight division. In this battle we have two very talented fighters and in one fighter we have a young 25 year old stud in Johnny Case. Johnny is only one fight shy of his age which this fight will put him at 25 with 25 professional fights, that being said it will be only his third in the UFC. He is 2-0 since joining the UFC winning by a KO and a submission not having to deal with the terrible judges in the UFC, which is odd because it is supposed to be the top level yet their judges are about as good as high school judges. Johnny has a 90% finish percentage. In other words he has finished 18 of his 20 professional victories 15 of those stoppages are by KO the following three by submission. He is an extremely explosive fighter and he comes out ready to fight without fail finishing 14 of his 18 in the first round!!! Case enters this fight winning 10 in a row with a head full of steam. He is known to be a pretty well rounded fighter being talented in both his stand up and abilities on the mat. He is a wrestler so he can grapple well and wear down his opponents though the 14 wins in the first round don’t show his ability to wear down his opponents. His stand up game though is crazy good and can knock his opponents out quick with his impressive strength in his hands. Case will probably look to keep this fight standing regardless of his incredible talent on the mat and if he decides to do so he could do so as he boasts a 75% takedown defense. Now the man facing Case that will be trying to avoid his heavy hands will be Francisco Trevino. Trevino will be the hometown favorite as he is from Mexico City and should have the crowd off and running to start the night’s televised fights. Trevino is the elder of the two at 33 years of age. Trevino is entering this fight undefeated with a 67% finishing percentage finishing 8 of his 12, 5 by KO and the other three by submission. He has finished 6 of those 8 finishes in the first round so he just like Case will be coming out looking for a finish quick. He will be entering only his second fight in the UFC with this one so neither fighter has an edge in UFC experience. Trevino is working more and more on his ground game and ability to control the fight on the mat and his ability on his back is backed by his brown belt in BJJ. This fight due to the fighters experience will be entertaining no matter where this one goes. Johnny though to me is the better all-around fighter with a lot of upside and I think he snags a win here and hands Trevino his first professional loss, by way of a second round KO. Alejandro Perez (16-5) vs. Patrick Williams (7-4): This is a fight in the Bantamweight division between Alejandro Perez and Patrick Williams. Patrick Williams is 33 years old who has a great fight style bringing a great ability on the ground that probably being the strongest part of his game. His standup though is very deceivingly good due to his great Muay-tai ability and absolutely incredible speed. This guy in the blink of an eye can unload a flurry of hands and put his opponent on their rear ends. He finishes his fights at an impressive 86% finishing 6 of his 7 professional wins. The most impressive part of those 6 finishes is that he has finished 5 of them in the first round meaning he has finished 71% of his wins in the first round and that is very exciting. Patrick has only fought one fight in the UFC and is entering this fight 0-1 in the UFC. Now standing opposite of Patrick is the fan favorite Mexican born fighter Alejandro Perez. Perez was the winner of TUF as a member of team Velasquez. Perez has finished 75% of his fights 12 of the 16 wins 7 by KO and the other 5 obviously by submission. Those 12 finishes have 9 finishes in the very first round. He comes into this fight winning 6 of his last 7 professional bouts and will look to keep his momentum going and at only 25 years of age he could start climbing the rankings in the Bantamweight division. I am not struggling to make a call for this fight I think it’s honestly the biggest mismatch on the fight card and I will be taking Alejandro Perez with a first round KO. Efrain Escudero (24-9) vs. Drew Dober (15-6, 1NC): Here is a lightweight bout for the co-main event for the pre-lims on FX. Drew Dober is a very talented 26 year old standout to be. He is a good Muay-Tai fighter who has finished 11 of his 15 wins 6 by KO the other 5 by submission. He is known for his great stand-up but I think that’s a mistake because he is a very well-rounded fighter with the ability to fight wherever the fight goes. He has great conditioning and if this fight needs to go all 3 rounds he should be in great shape to do so and be able to keep up the pressure throughout all 15 minutes. This kid can take a beating and keep coming as it seems that he does not understand the definition of the word quit. Since joining the UFC though Dober hasn’t seemed to figure out his entire skill set going 2-2, 1NC in his first 5 fights in the UFC. He will be looking to start his turn around in the UFC against a home favorite again in Efrain Escudero. Efrain is a great wrestler and will look to grind out his opponents and wear them out. Escudero is in the same boat as Dober as being in the UFC has been beyond tough for him. He has won 5 of his last 7 professional fights but in the UFC since winning the TUF finale over Phillipe Nover he has been on a landslide. His UFC record including the TUF finale puts him at 4 – 5 all of those wins but one being by way of decision not showing his ability to finish a fight in the UFC with a win. He has won 15 of his 24 wins by decision. The 15 are split with 12 submission victories and the other 3 are by KO. Efrain will look to control Dober in this fight and get it to the mat and if he does he might be able to just sneak out the win and improve his UFC record. This fight is hard to call just because both fighters have talent but it hasn’t shown to its full scope yet. I am going to stick with the fan favorite for this one just because I think it’s that close that the fans could get behind him just enough to pull of this fight. So I am going to take Efrain Escudero with a unanimous decision. #7 Henry Cejudo (8-0) vs. #13 Chico Camus (14-5-1): This is a flyweight fight between two guys who are trying to raise through the ranks Cejudo is an absolute beast and is on the raise and Camus is putting his stuff together more and more each fight to take the main event of the pre-lims. Chico is coming in as probably the underdog here and does lack a little bit of excitement only finishing half of his professional wins with 7. Chico’s move to flyweight is a new one being that he has only fought one fight here so far being 1-0 in this division beating a ranked fighter in Brad Pickett. Chico is a great stand-up fighter who has good blocking and great technical skills and an underrated ability with his head movement. I think Chico will look to keep this fight standing up but I am tired of hearing that he is just a good standup fighter and I personally hope he takes it to the mat and shows off his underrated ability to fight on the mat. He is going up against an incredibly talented fighter in Henry Cejudo who holds an undefeated record professionally. Henry is an incredible fighter who might have the best ability to take out Demetrious Johnson as long as he can continue to make weight. Henry is the definition of a well-rounded fighter and man he can deliver from anywhere. He like Chico has only a 50% finish rate only stopping 4 of his fights. All four of Henry’s stoppages are first round KO’s and have all been in the very first round. Those stoppages have not been seen in the UFC yet though because his 2 fights so far in the UFC have both gone to decision. That might be a tad boring and honestly something to worry about since the judges don’t truly have a consistent score card but it does show his ability to last a whole fight being a conditioned fighter. This fight should in my opinion be a main card fight but I won’t complain where it is because it is a great headliner for FX to have in their pre-lims. This fight is going to be entertaining and I believe Demetrious should make sure he is watching this fight wherever he is at on June 13th. This is going to be a fun one for the fans and it should showcase how talented this division truly is behind the well-known top 5. I am going to take who I believe to be the most well-rounded fighter in the division and take Henry Cejudo to win by KO in the second round after landing a vicious elbow to stun Chico. UFC 188 Main Card (10PM/ET):#5 Tecia Torres (5-0) vs. #15 Angela Hill (2-0): The main card is going to get kicked off with a bang and let me tell you this fight could be the definition of exciting in the women’s strawweight division. Angela Hill is entering this fight 2-0 professionally which might be the least amount of fights you can ever see in the UFC but she actually came into the UFC with a 1-0 record. Her first fight in the UFC was a unanimous decision win where she landed 107 strikes compared to her opponents 47. She is fairly new to the world of MMA and is hard to talk about to an extent but I can say her Muay-Tai background makes her an exciting fighter to watch and a very dangerous one to have to face. In the other corner is Angela’s toughest test of her career in Tecia Torres. Personally I think Torres is the number two fighter in her respective division behind only the current champ Joanna Jedrzejczyk. Torres is an extremely fast paced fighter with really fast hands. Her striking ability is not only led by her incredible speed she also is an extremely explosive fighter who can end a fight quickly. She is a young fighter though with only a 5-0 record at the age of 25 years old. Now regardless of her explosive game and quick hands making for what should be a great finishing style fighter she has only won her fights through decision. Tecia is a very athletic young lady and is hard to take down with a 100% takedown defense granted that is only through one fight in the UFC. As Mike said she might only have 5 professional fights all of them wins by the way, but those 5 can be compiled over fighters such as Paige Van Zant (her only professional loss), Felice Herrig, Rose Namajunas, and Angela Magana beating some tough opponents. This fight like I said could be extremely exciting for the fans as well as this division in general. This fight is going to get kicked off with an impressive win and her first professional stoppage as I believe Tecia Torres will win by first round KO of Angela Hill. Yair Rodriguez (5-1) vs. Charles Rosa (10-1): This is a fight between two featherweight “newcomers” as this fight like shockingly most of the other ones so far seem to be between two fighters with less than 5 fights in the UFC. This fight has the potential to get the fans standing on their feet multiple times. Charles Rosa defines the word exciting as all 10 of his professional wins are stoppages 7 of them by way of submission, some impressive ones to say the least (3 by armbar, triangle, preuvian necktie, anaconda, D’Arce choke) and the final three by KO. This guy isn’t just a fight finisher, he does it fast and does it well finishing an impressive 80% of his wins in the very first round. The only loss Rosa has professionally was his first fight in the UFC and it was by way of unanimous decision to a great fighter in his day, Denis Siver. Charles has been preparing for this fight well by making sure he focuses on all elements of MMA keeping his mat abilities strong but making sure he is able to fight standing if he needs to or is unable to take this to the mat. Standing opposite of Rosa is a beast that is going to be hard to stop in Yair Rodriguez. Yair is an impressive fighter with 3 finishes of his 5 wins, 2 by KO and one by submission. He is entering this fight on a 3 fight win streak going 1-0 in the UFC winning the featherweight division in the finale of the TUF LATAM season. Yair’s 3 finishes all come in the first round making it seem that he manages to finish fights early or they seem to go full length. Well this is one opponent he does not want the fight to escape the first round because Rosa will make sure he doesn’t let it get to the judges score card. I think that Rosa is the better fighter personally and will bring home the win with a 2nd round KO. #10 Kelvin Gastelum (11-1) vs. Nate Marquardt (36-14-2): Be ready doctors for some beaten and battered fighters here because this middleweight fight is between two tanks of men. I am going to talk about the veteran first in Nate “the great” Marquardt. Nate is a great fighter who has seemed to be struggling as of late. He is 1-3 in his last 4 UFC fights, 2 of those 3 loses are via first round. Seven of his last eight wins though are by finishes 5 of them are by way of KO. Nate the great has 25 wins by stoppage though and has won those by 14 submissions and 11 by KO. This man is a definite veteran in the MMA world as he has been fighting professionally since he was 19 years of age and is currently 36 years of age. Nate is a very well built fighter who has as much power as you can imagine a fighter having in the middleweight division. He is a freakishly large man for this division and watching him fight is always a fun thing to do. Nate doesn’t just use his freakish size and power for KO’s either as he can fight on the mat as well as if not better than his stand-up game. Now regardless of how great a fighter Nate is he is coming into possibly one of the toughest fights of his career as he enters a fight against Kelvin Gastelum. Kelvin is an interesting story as he seems to struggle to make weight each and every single fight. Kelvin has won 11 professional fights 8 of those by stoppages split evenly with 4 KO and 4 submission victories. His last fight was his first loss professionally and it came to one of the best and most underrated fighters in the world in Tyron Woodley so he shouldn’t be disappointed in that at all. Kelvin is a fast finisher when he does as he has finished 5 of those 8 in the very first round. This kid doesn’t know how to quit he has a lot of determination and heart and never gives up. This fight could go either way as both fighters have the ability to stop it on the mat and standing up with their heavy powerful hands. This fight is between the young and upcoming versus the veteran of the octagon and should be exciting for this division. I think somewhere in the third round Gastelum will get through with a strong shot regardless of fatigue due to a tough weight cut and KO Marquardt, who might consider retirement after this fight if he loses. #4 Gilbert Melendez (22-4) vs. #9 Eddie Alvarez (25-4): The co-main event of the evening is a great fight being the third fight in the lightweight division. Eddie is a fun fighter to watch with an incredible well-rounded fight style and is hard to beat for sure. This guy’s stand-up game is extremely strong as he has some pretty incredible striking based off of his amazing boxing skills and background. Eddie has an impressive finishing rate finishing 21 of his 25 fights, 16 of them displaying his boxing skills by way of KO and the other 5 by submission. Eddie has finished 13 of those fights in the very first round proving the ability to come out fast and strong looking to finish the fight fast. He has won 4 of his 6 fights in the UFC losing his last fight to the beast himself Donald Cerrone. Eddie is going to be squaring off against a member of the “skrap pack” in Gilbert Melendez. Gilbert trains with the Diaz brothers and Jake Shields under the genius Ceaser Gracie. Melendez has great conditioning and will be able to go all three rounds without slowing down. The best display of his amazing cardio is seen in the Diego Sanchez brawl that is a fight I can honestly say I will never forget as it was extremely entertaining. Melendez is built really well and could be seen as a KO artist and has 11 KO’s and he also brings one submission to his finishing. The 10 decisions he has in victories aren’t always the normal wear your opponent down and just outscore him type of victories he has had some fights where it was impossible to believe his opponent didn’t go down. Gilbert is an exciting fighter with some good skill but since joining the UFC he has gone 1-2 losing to Benson Henderson and Anthony Pettis and his lone win being that extremely incredible fight over Diego Sanchez. In Strikeforce though before coming to the UFC he rattled off 7 straight victories meaning out of his last 10 he is 8-2. Melendez will most likely look to get Alvarez on the mat quick due to being the better fighter on the mat and if he does that look for him to put on display his phenomenal ground and pound. This fight could go either way I believe it depends if they stay standing or if they go to the mat. That being said I have confidence that Alvarez will pull off an impressive win and look to leapfrog in the lightweight rankings. I think he will stop Melendez in the very first round with KO after dazing him and unloading on his stunned opponent. (C) Cain Velasquez (13-1) vs (IC) Fabricio Werdum (19-5-1): Here it is the main event we have all been waiting for. We haven’t seen Cain fight since October 19th, 2013 so people are questioning octagon rust. This fight in the heavyweight division will be a lot of fun to watch possibly or be over quickly as the champion is the definition of a fan favorite. Let’s start with my analysis of Fabricio, I personally think he should have kept his mouth shut saying that Cain has been pretending to be injured to hold the belt and that Cain is an American faking to be a Mexican. Fabricio is probably the best heavyweight fighter on the mat in their division and most likely will be looking to get this fight to the ground because standing up yes he is strong but he has some serious weakness compared to Cain. Fabricio has won 5 fights in a row 2 of them by decision, 2 by KO and the final one by submission. His last fight was supposed to be against Cain for the title but Cain got injured and had to withdrawl from the fight, so Dana White made it a battle for the Interim Championship where he dominated Mark Hunt. I personally think everyone in Werdum’s corner saying what he did to Mark Hunt is impressive and a sign that he will handle Cain have lost their minds. I know he won the fight but beating a 41 year old fighter who has been falling apart at the seams lately isn’t something that makes you worthy of a title shot in my opinion. Honestly the only impressive win during his five fight win streak to me is the unanimous decision victory over Travis Browne. Werdum is an incredible ground game fighter who can make the best, even Frank Mir tap out. Now just because I have doubted his latest of wins doesn’t mean to take him lightly because trust me if Cain was to lose to anyone I think Werdum is one of the 3 fighters that could be at the top of this division to do so at this point. Werdum is a good stand-up fighter and it makes him a very well-rounded fighter with the ability to stop any of his opponents with powerful hands as well. That being said though Werdum would be a fool to try and stay standing the whole fight with Cain because Cain’s stand-up game is in a different planet than the rest of the Heavyweight division’s. Now standing opposite of the interim champ is the current heavyweight champ, Cain Velasquez. Personally I could go on forever about how impressive this man is as a fighter but I will do my best to hold some of it in just to keep this an even analysis. Cain trains with AKA and by doing that he trains with the current light heavyweight champion, Daniel Cormier, the future middleweight champion Luke Rockhold, and lightweight standout Khabib. Cain is the man who did what other fighters struggled to do, he stopped Brock Lesnar with a KO in the very first round. He didn’t just stop Lesnar he absolutely dominated Brock and gave him a pretty nasty scar that he still has today and has caused him to bleed in the WWE just due to the scar being so deep. Cain is a terrifying fighter because he is an underrated fighter on the mat and his power is beyond incredible. Cain is a KO artist but he can wrestle with the best of them and has a great ability at landing takedowns and using his great ground and pound using his athleticism. Cain might be a little outmatched on the mat and if he needs to avoid it going to the mat he could do so with his great takedown defense which he has an 89% takedown defense rate. His lone UFC loss came to Junior Dos Santos which he was rumored to have fought while injured and got surgery immediately following his loss. He didn’t just revenge his loss to Junior he took the belt with his next victory over Junior and then two fights later he beat Junior again in a title defense by stopping him by a KO in the 5th round. Cain is in my opinion one of the best fighters in the UFC, I would say 2nd ranked. This fight is either going to stay standing and be an unbalanced fight where Cain will dominate the stand-up game or this fight will go to the mat and be a back and forth battle where each fighter will look for their win by either submission or KO off the mat. I personally think the fans will help Cain even more, not that he needs it, Werdum really might have stepped in it by opening his mouth and pissing off one of the best fighters the UFC heavyweight division has ever seen. I am going to pick Cain to retain his belt and knock off another impressive fighter and pick up this win through a second round KO. I believe the first round will be the two fighters testing each other and showing the other respect before Cain unloads in the second round and picks up the most impressive KO of his career. Matt K